1. Technical Field
Example embodiments of the present invention relates in general to a mobile Internet protocol television (IPTV) service, and more particularly, to a mobile IPTV system and a method of providing a mobile IPTV service.
2. Description of the Related Art
Television has been being evolved continuously from digital television to mobile television (for example, digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB), digital video broadcasting (DVB), and mediaFLO) which is portable television. International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) launched IPTV Focus Group (FG IPTV) in 2006, and television is rapidly moving to a new type of television called Internet protocol television (IPTV).
A technology which provides an IPTV service is disclosed, for example, in International Patent Application No. PCT/EP2007/058611.
Since existing IPTV uses a method which transmits Internet protocol (IP)-based various contents to users via an IP network, in order to expand to mobile IPTV, a user environment has to be wireless. A technology for mobile IPTV is not limited to a certain wireless technology, but as an initial type of a mobile IPTV technology, WiMAX (WiBro in Korea) which is a wideband wireless access technology has been recently developed to provide an IPTV service. Further, a wireless technology is being expanded to more efficiently transmit multimedia contents such as an IPTV service through a corresponding wireless technology.
Recently, as an image coding technique develops and a wideband network is spread, interests and demands of users for multimedia services through the Internet are increasing. Particularly, an IPTV service is being regarded as main applications in an information technology (IT) market and is being expected to be expanded to a mobile IPTV service in the near future with the growth of wireless devices and wireless networks. As a representative wireless network for providing a mobile IPTV service, a WiMAX network which has a high data rate, supports Quality of Service (QoS) differentiated according to a service and provides a multicast broadcast service (MBS) is being spotlighted.
In providing a mobile IPTV service within the WiMAX network, it is very important to efficiently utilize wireless resources and smoothly provide Quality of Experience (QoE) to users, and thus researches on that is actively being conducted.